Oversharing is Encouraged
Camera – Ring Lights – Action! Eleanor Hill’s Overshare has begun its run and follows perfectly on from Sadvents, the award-winning show that introduced her to an unprepared world, writes Michael Holland.
With an amazing tech team and a director who understands all of Hill’s idiosyncrasies, Overshare is choreographed to the millisecond. She will say a word and the projection and soundtrack all sync in together to create an incredible moment.
Overshare is a series of these brilliant moments as the writer-performer drags us through the darkest corners of her life: when she wishes all our mums dead to counteract the loss of her own; as she rips out the heart of the man that doesn’t return her love, when she tells herself it is okay to stalk people online… Sometimes it is unwatchable. All the time it is unmissable.
Hill warns of flashing lights, suicide, drug abuse, self-harm, rape, porn, but reminds us that Overshare is a comedy.
The audience groans. Turns away. Retches. Laughs. There are a lot of laughs. How can you not laugh when she tells you her apple a day does not help a hypochondriac keep the doctor away; when she tells you a side-effect of pills prescribed for depression is, er… depression! Her funeral playlist is one that I think will be copied by most of the people who see this show.
Eleanor Hill is funny. She is also scary. Watching her break down her life into a succession of breakdowns is both funny and scary because she has said 80% of what she says is true. And that’s without mentioning her recent brain operation!
Overshare is a technical nightmare with all the many things that can go wrong, but it is also a tech extravaganza as she livestreams the show, talking to her ring light phone instead of making eye contact with the live audience.
A very telling moment was when she turned the camera on us. It was the only still and calm moment in the 75 minute performance. It was when we all realised that she was putting us out there on the livestream, There was a frisson of panic for that few seconds.
Hill puts everything out on the stage for us, leaving nothing for herself. She gives everything for us, and with no happy, bright-future ending. And just when she has us feeling concerned about her wellbeing she crawls from beneath the duvet and smiles. That smile let us know she was okay and that we could clap and cheer and stand up for the ovation.
Go and see it. Film it. Livestream it. Send Eleanor Hill questions to answer mid-performance. Just go. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.
Greenwich Theatre until 25th May. Tickets: £12.50.
Booking and full details: https://greenwichtheatre.org.uk/events/overshare/
